The iPad - The Teacher’s Flexible Friend.
Last week was BETT week (British Educational Training and Technology Show). This leading education technology show is one of the largest of its kind in the world, and is held every January in the UK.
The show is all about transforming education for the better, through technology. We remember not so long ago it was a rare thing to see Apple technology in the classrooms of the UK and Europe (the US education system was a much earlier adopter) and we love the fact that this year there was a stand dedicated to Apple technology in the classroom. The Apple Solution Expert Village had its very own theatre, which ran a packed schedule throughout the entire show featuring speakers who have pioneered some of the world’s most innovative learning programmes using Apple technologies.
Not surprisingly, here at Smoovie HQ we are huge fans of the iPad in education. The benefits of the iPad in the classroom have been screamingly obvious to us for years now, indeed that was a huge factor in developing our stop motion animation app (Smoovie) specifically for the iPad. Technology in education can be a wonderful thing, but it has to be the right kind of technology. The iPad is not only a brilliantly designed and reliable piece of hardware, it is so much more. Unlike so many other ‘one-trick-pony’ technologies that have been introduced to the classroom and have quickly ended up gathering dust in a cupboard. Over the years we have watched as schools, carried on the wave of technology for technology’s sake, invested in set after set of portable games consoles for the classroom complete with a limited range of games and nothing more.
We know that budget is always an issue in education. For the price of one iPad you could purchase three portable games consoles, so that must be a good thing right? But we think this is false economy. Games for these consoles, however useful, are individually very expensive and this limits how often schools can invest in something new. With a huge range of brilliant, highly affordable educational apps on the App Store, together with Apple’s Volume Purchase Program which enables developers to pass on an educational discount of up to 50% on purchases of 20 or more apps, the possibilities are practically endless on the iPad and schools can afford to keep up to date with the latest advances in apps. And it goes without saying that, with the iPad, you are getting so much more than a player of educational apps. You are getting a fully-fledged computer. You are getting the internet, powerful creative apps like iMovie and GarageBand, excellent utility apps like Keynote, Pages and Numbers, the ability to print, to interact with other iPads on the school network and to save work.
So if the budget really is tight, why not do what one of our local schools did earlier this month - invest in fewer iPads and explore all the ways in which children can collaborate on team projects with an accessible range of affordable, quality apps at their fingertips.
The Smoovie Team is excited to have been invited by this school to run a Smoovie Stop Motion Animation Workshop in the next few weeks. In the days leading up to the workshop the children will collaborate in small groups to plan their animations. They will discuss plot and create storyboards and character profiles, design and create their sets, plan their lighting and write their scripts. They will learn how to work together and how to make best use of individual talents. And then, on the day of the workshop, they will work in the roles they have allocated themselves and have a lot of fun creating their movies. Afterwards they might even decide to invite family members to school to watch their movies, complete with popcorn!
Some schools are lucky to have a bigger budget for technology. We have been excited by the increasing number of 1:1 iPad schemes in schools around the world and the ever-increasing take-up close to home in Europe where education authorities are waking up to the benefits the iPad brings. With some of our Open Planet children having 1:1 iPads at school, we have first hand experience of the benefits they bring. The iPads have enhanced almost every aspect of their learning; from the way teachers and pupils can share and interact with information during a lesson, to the sharing of useful resources after class, the submitting and monitoring of homework, extra help remotely from teachers when required, collaboration between pupils on projects even when they’re not in the same room … the list goes on and on. Not to mention the use of all those brilliant apps there are out there which enhance the learning experience. The only downside is that our kids can now claim they need their iPads for ‘educational purposes’ when we think they’ve had enough screen time.
The right technology is revolutionising education, but sometimes nothing does our children more good than a good run around in the park …
http://www.smoovie.com/education.html
http://www.bettshow.com
http://www.apple.com/education/